It's been awhile since I've posted anything related to JRemote2 but the time has come to so. Hopefully these are considered if/when development is resumed.
Issues:1) JRemote2 no longer gives any current playback data to my smartwatch. Right now I've got an Amazfit GTR 4 smartwatch and previously JRemote2 worked fine for it and I could display what was currently playing, the volume control, etc. however since the last JRemote2 update this is now totally broken. Oddly the Play, Previous (which I can tap twice to go to the previous track) and Next buttons still work. It just doesn't display any track, artist or album data nor gives volume control. Maybe this is related to the changes needed to get the Android 13+ notification stuff working? I can say MO 4Media and BubbleUPnP apps work fine for this (and work fine with Android 13+ notifications) when using MC so it's definitely a JRemote2 issue. I suspect this may happen with Wear OS devices too, and I have been considering getting a OnePlus Watch 2 to go with my OnePlus 12 phone so I may be able to test that in the future.
2) JRemote2 no longer works with the Pano Scrobber app, which is used to detect what's currently playing and submit that data to last.fm (or other scrobbing websites). I have it set to detect JRemote2, MO 4Media and BubbleUPnP and out of those three the only one it doesn't work for is JRemote2. In fact JRemote2 isn't detected as a music app in Pano Scrobber (yet MO 4Media is). Attempt playback in MO 4Media or BubbleUPnP and Pano Scrobber shows a notification that it's detected what's playing and is going to submit it. Do the same in JRemote2 and nothing happens. If you open Pano Scrobber it detects nothing is playing (whereas when playing in the other two apps, it detects it).
If I was a betting man, I'd wager these two issues are actually related (and potentially have the same underlying cause). I suspect if JRemote2 is to work with Pano Scrobber again the playback data on my smartwatch may start working again too.
Suggestions:1) Add a toggle option in JRemote2's settings to hide the rating stars from Now Playing.
This is self-explanatory. I don't use ratings at all so it's wasted space.
2) Add Year/Date of an album to the UI in several places.
This was brought up
here by aklegal, and I have to agree. This was part of the original JRemote app and is missing in JRemote2. In addition to that request I also would request to have it added to the Now Playing window somewhere, because year/date info would be beneficial. Maybe below the progress bar after the track number of total tracks part (and equal distance between current time on the far left and time remaining on the far right so it all appears nice)?
3) Add a toggle option in JRemote2's settings to automatically display Playing Now when starting playback.
I seem to recall maybe this was discussed before (and unsurprisingly I forgot the details), but it would really come in handy since I always go to Now Playing when starting playback. But if not really doable no biggie.